WAVELET in R13.
Letters: It was pretty much even between both contestants today, although I have to commend Chris' SERRANO in R5 and Dougie's THIMBLE in R8. Then, it was DOVETAILS in R12 that ultimately sealed Dougie's fate as he is now facing Philip on Thursday! I'm sure Dougie's sorry to make Chris feel so VIOLATED there.
Numbers: Chris is back at his usual tactic of throwing us off with the six small although he went with it for both rounds instead of just one which was VERY unusual. Alarm Bells should have rung after Dougie snatched 10 points from him in R3 but wait, what's this, he gambled another time...and lost! I would only say the last one was genuinely difficult and tricky. It was very lucky and fortunate that there were "10"s in both R3 and R9, otherwise the overall difficulty would've be much higher. How did Rachel miss R9's solution? Even I got it after thinking of multiples of 6 rather than multiples of 9 since my method was identical to Dougie's. Hmm...
Conundrum: Blanked out on this one, I had no idea...also I didn't know the meaning of the word beforehand so pass again...
So there you have it, I was so utterly right about Chris Thorn's six small tactic which I had predicted way back in end-January, if he can't succeed it would prove fatal...and indeed it did!
I have a feeling those moves by him were to throw the opponent off deliberately even though he himself couldn't cope with it, and voila, it backfired spectacularly on him today when Dougie solved R3 perfectly and beat him in R9. I'm sure if he had opted for 1L like he did in his Prelims, he probably would have fared slightly better although Dougie ultimately sealed his fate with DOVETAILS like I mentioned above. Oh well, sometimes you have to know your limits, and unfortunately, Chris gambled and lost. Chris ends up with 8 Wins and 828 Points while Dougie continues on with 8 Wins and 856 Points, overtaking the very person he defeated today as of the time of writing.
Philip Aston now faces Dougie Mackay come Thursday. Two upsets now, do I foresee a third coming? We'll just have to wait and see...last Quarter-Finals tomorrow, "Hot On the Heels Ex-Cop" Phil Davies vs "Two-Time Finalist after 22 Years" Paul Harper. Who will face Zarte the day after that?
Progress:
QF1 (14 June):
Zarte Siempre vs Jan Pask (
124 - 19)
QF2 (15 June): Toby McDonald vs
Philip Aston (97 -
104)
QF3 (18 June): Chris Thorn vs
Dougie Mackay (68 -
97)
QF4 (19 June): Phil Davies vs Paul Harper
SF1 (20 June): Zarte Siempre vs (QF4 Winner)
SF2 (21 June): Philip Aston vs Dougie Mackay
GF (22 June): (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)